"One" true meaning, Edge's divorce?......

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diamondbruno9

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Was wondering ,song One, is it about Edge's spilt up or the band's unity issuses. Got in a long disscusion w young lady named Steph and her Dad in ga line bos.#3. What's the answer please,no speculators please...
 
From what I've read the song is not so much "about" either incident. It was written during the stressful and difficult recording days in Berlin, when the band was trying to decide which direction to take their music and image. Apparently, a lot of conflict internally. Bono (as is often the case with him) just started to sing into the mike and that's what came out. Also, it was getting that song down on tape and realizing that 'yes, U2 still could write good music together' is what kind of soothed the conflict and led to the album we now know as Achtung Baby. Now granted, the fact that Edge's marriage was breaking up at the time probably added to the general mood and stress of the album, but I think it has been said by both Bono and Edge that the album isn't specifically "about" Edge's marital troubles.

Btw, most of this information is in Bill Flanagan's book "U2 at the End of the World" probably the BEST U2 book on the market. Read it if you get the chance.

-sula

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~I want to play the guitar very badly, and I do play the guitar very badly - Bono~

Take a virtual tour of U2's Dublin... Crzy4Bono's U2 page with some of Sula's Dublin pic's
 
I don't think that anyone but U2 themselves could give you anything other than speculation. Maybe you should have asked Bono when you had the chance.
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I thought the song "love is blindness' was written for the Edge about his troubles..??????????

One was about rediscovering the unity of the band...something they thought they had lost...

Dream wanderer
 
Ok this is how I remember it. In 1992 Bono said in a Rolling St. Interview that the song was about the "disillusionment" of edge"s marriage, I remember thinking now that is a fancy word 4 divorce. Later in the studio,it evolved in 2 this Band Unity concept stated in the book published later after Bono's statement. Either interpretation works, part of our boys' genious I guess.. Sula I saw U on the MTV spec filmed at bos.4, did U see me?
 
I don't think even U2 themselves could give you the "true" meaning to that song because their isn't one. That song is the most universal combination of lyrics they have ever written. He could be about God, Father-Son, Mother-Daughter, Edge's divorce, husband wife, etc. But I think at the core of it lies this: Its about celebrating the differences in a relationship. The opposites. and how we get to "carry each other, carry each other."

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"You gotta put the women and children first, but you've got an unquenchable thirst for New York..."
 
Actually now that I think about...I think I remember reading press releases and interviews at the time that the whole album was influenced by Edge's troubles...but it wasn't only about that...I think Bono said the songs were going to be about a troubled relationship anyway...but Edge's experience only made it more personal...

Dream Wanderer
 
I thought 'So Cruel' was about Edge's divorce...

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"I think it's all about drums..."
 
I was thinking about this at home last night and flipped through ATEOTW to find some more information about the song and how it was written. Here's some excerpts....

from Bill Flanagan's U2 - At the End of the World
The big problem is that the four members of U2 cannot agree on the value of the new material that Bono and Edge play for Larry and Adam, or on the sense of the new direction in which Bono and Edge want to steer the band. . . .
A division is quickly established between the Hats, Edge and Bono, and the Haircuts, Larry and Adam. Lanois, who became almost a fifth member of U2 on Unforgettable Fire and Joshua Tree, is clearly leaning toward the Haircut position, which only makes Bono and Edge more defensive.

Thus the Hansa sessions crawl along, with Berlin getting darker and colder. Everyone's freezing all the time and it seems to never stop raining. They eat most nights in a gray oppressive gruel hall. With nothing else to do short of disbanding, U2 keep plodding along, trying to figure out a way to take their music into the nineties and feeling like they're getting nowhere. . . .
Edge starts thinking that maybe the rumors that U2 was going to disband after the New Year's show were prophetic. "Maybe this is what we should do," he admits. "Maybe we should break up and see what happens."

It seems like every time U2 starts to get going musically something goes wrong, someone makes a mistake. When that happens Bono - not known for keeping his feelings to himself - howls his frustration. This really gets on his partners' nerves. Finally they get together and impose a band ruling: the hyped-up Bono is permanently forbidden to drink coffee.

U2 need some objective ears. Brian Eno, producer with Lanois of their two best albums and the historic Mensa of Hansa, is drafted to come in for a few days and listen to what they've done. It turns out to be a great relief. Eno - thin, pale, and ascetic - has the patience of a university professor taking over a class of unruly freshmen. . . . He goes to the board and shows how, by adding oddball vocal effects and a few jarring sounds, it's possible to bring some of the more conventional material U2 has been fiddling with into fresh sonic territory. Eno assures the frustrated band that they're doing better than they think, and that Edge's desire to get into new acoustic areas is not incompatible with Danny and Larry's desire to hold on to solid song structures.
. . .
Eno's input gives U2 encouragement to keep working, but it does not settle their stomachs. One night they are struggling with a track called "Ultra Violet" and it's going nowhere. Edge figures the song needs another section and goes to the piano in the big room to come up with a middle eight. After playing for a while he has two possible parts and isn't sure which one would be better for the song. He comes back into the control booth, picks up an acoustic guitar, and plays both of them for Lanois and Bono to see which they prefer. They say that those are both pretty good - what would it be like if you put them together?

Edge goes back out into the studio and starts playing the two sections together, one into the other. Larry and Adam fall in behind him on the drums and bass. Bono feels the muse knocking on his head as surely as in one of those old Elvis movies where the king jumps up in the middle of a clambake and starts rocking. Bono goes out to the microphone and begins improvising words and a melody: "We're one, but we're not the same - we get to carry each other, carry each other."

U2 plays the new song for about ten minutes. "Is it getting better," Bono sings, "or do you feel the same? Is it any easier on you now that you've got someone to blame?" Edge feels that it's suddenly all jelling - the band is clicking and all four of them know. They come into the booth and listen to a playback with a relief close to joy. By the next morning they have recorded "One," a strong a song as U2 has ever written. It came to all of them together and it came easily, as a gift.
. . .
There's still an enormous amount of work to do, but at least U2 knows they can still bring good music out of each other.


Later on in the book, the author has a conversation with Edge and I thought the following applied to the question at hand...
"Do you think that Bono was talking to you in some of the Achtung Baby lyrics?"
"I think that what was going on in my life had an influence on Bono and therefore on the lyrics to some of the songs," Edge says evenly. "That's for sure. A lot of people have read into the lyrics that it's the story of my marriage breaking down. I'm not denying that it has had an influence, but I think that there's a lot of stories in there and it's not just my story."

Hope that information is helpful.
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Get the book. It's the best!
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-sula

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~I want to play the guitar very badly, and I do play the guitar very badly - Bono~

Take a virtual tour of U2's Dublin... Crzy4Bono's U2 page with some of Sula's Dublin pic's
 
i heard one was about a mormon girl that bono wanted to marry, but i don't know if it's true because bono married his high school sweetheart
 
Originally posted by blood red edge:
i heard one was about a mormon girl that bono wanted to marry, but i don't know if it's true because bono married his high school sweetheart

Considering that the B-man had already been married to Ali for about 8 years when the song 'One' was written, I'd say that's a load of hooey.
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~I want to play the guitar very badly, and I do play the guitar very badly - Bono~

Take a virtual tour of U2's Dublin... Crzy4Bono's U2 page with some of Sula's Dublin pic's
 
Has anyone here ever heard that One was an argument between a father and a son who has HIV? I think I read this somewhere, and all the profits of the single went to AIDS research I believe. I'm not saying you guys are wrong, I think Bono wrote the lyrics to be pretty open to the listener.
 
Originally posted by mocool12:
Has anyone here ever heard that One was an argument between a father and a son who has HIV? I think I read this somewhere, and all the profits of the single went to AIDS research I believe. I'm not saying you guys are wrong, I think Bono wrote the lyrics to be pretty open to the listener.


I've read this somewhere too, that the fictional 'story' running through Bono's head at the time was of a young gay guy, who for being gay had been disowned by his father. Now he's on his deathbed, dying from AIDS and his father is there trying to reconcile and make up for lost time, but it's almost too late. The song is what the son is saying to his father. If you listen to the song with that story in mind it makes alot of sense, and makes it very sad.

What I think is incredible is that the story from 'The U2 Bible' about that song makes it seem so spontaneous, esp. Bono's lyrics, like they just fell out of his head there and then, which seems to happen alot in the stories you hear of the band recording, and bang! they've created 'One', an amazing song that works on so many different levels, and can mean so many different things to different people and IMO is one of the better songs ever written.

Fucking genius.
 
I know that in "Legends" on VH1, Edge and Bono were speaking about "One" Edge said that people have come up to him and said that they played One at their wedding and Edge said if they really knew what that song was about, they wouldn't of used it.
(Okay, that is NOT verbatim, but pretty close!)
 
See, looks like Bear Dog got it right....Sorry folks double post,Iam a 'tard' somedays....Db9

[This message has been edited by diamondbruno9 (edited 08-21-2001).]
 
I've always heard one as being a conversation with an individual and god. A flawed individual ( which does fit inot the aids theme because of the social stigma surrounding it). " is it getting better or do you feel the same.....you've got someone to blame?" is god saying..."Do you resent me?, that's okay, it's okay to blame me" And the " One love one life"....is the individual saying " G man you say all of this..but where is it? where's the love?" and "Did I dissapoint you?...mouth" is the individual asking back..." What have i done to deserve this...why must I suffer what have i done?". " you say love is a temple love the higher law.....crawl" is A question of faith " God you've said all this, you say you love us, but you make us crawl" ..the song is an interrogation of faith that I'm sure bono and most of us ( myself included go through). " We Get to carry each other" is bono saying that perhaps the answer in all of us, not god, or in any one person, it''s our job to carry each other and bear the burdens of those around us.

Just the way I see it, and I only started to look upon it this way recently after having a lot of these questions in my head lately. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this.
 
That's a beautiful interpretation Arun V, I can see how it can be seen in that aspect.
But on the other hand it could be a conversation by an individual with God with the tables turned.
I can also see it as God asking "you built these temples in my honor and invite me in, but you've also established more rules than love".
With all that God has offered and given out of love, anything that goes wrong is blamed on Him.
Not to forget the many times God isn't even thought of until a human has something wrong going on in their life.
"We need to carry each other" may be a way of stating since man has created their own problems they should not expect God to just "zap" it away, for humans to undo the damage humans have created on their own.

My best analogy would be of a conversation with a parent... blaming a parent for all of my bad experiences even though my parent has done all they could to prepare me for my journey of life.
What would that parent say? Would that parent accept partial blame even though they had no involvement with my hardship?
Probably, and maybe offer the best advice available.
 
However if you look at the lines bono sings live after themain verses

" did you hear me coming lord, did you hear me call, feel me scratching will you make me crawl?"

or something close to that....we go back to the individual there too...any thoughts. AllIwant? or anyone else?
 
" did you hear me coming lord, did you hear me call, feel me scratching will you make me crawl?"

That's pretty close to what he sings live at the end of One.
It could be a question if God will do to us as we have done in our lives when it's time to enter His domain.
We call to Him in our times of darkness, and then wonder why we can't hear the answer?
But we each have our own interpretation...
 
Nope, thx for everyone's input,but I'm w/ beardog...

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"..it's about breaking barriers, transcending boundries and conquering great divides"-Bono 1987

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url=http://www.arizonaautoweb.com/bono/]My website......An open letter to Bono from diamondbruno[/url]
 
actually i've heard that alot of AB was about Edge's divorce. who knows
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--STU234

Dammit, i'm NOT a newbie i just can't decide on a "handle" i'm happy with. . .

U2= The greatest band EVER!
 
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